WEST BRIDGEWATER – Former police officer Thomas Richmond is among four West Bridgewater police officers to settle with the town after filing a complaint with the Massachusetts Commis...

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Other cases against West Bridgewater

WEST BRIDGEWATER – Former police officer Thomas Richmond is among four West Bridgewater police officers to settle with the town after filing a complaint with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination.

The most recent settlement, signed by selectmen in November, requires the town to pay $125,000 in a gender and disability discrimination case filed by former police officer Joyce Graf.

Graf, 57, filed a complaint in 2009 with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination. That complaint alleged discrimination based on disability and gender.

It also claimed there had been on-the-job retaliation against her because of previous discrimination complaint she had filed with the state agency.

In total, Graf has won $160,000 in settlements from the town. Those settlements are paid by the town’s insurance carrier.

The most recent settlement will award Graf $95,000, and provide $30,000 to cover legal fees accrued by the commission’s counsel during Graf’s first case filed in 2006.

Other settlements of discrimination complaints involving the Police Department were paid to Richmond in 2011, to former Lt. Raymund Rogers in 2008, and to former Sgt. Philip Tuck in 2007. They, like Graf, had filed discrimination complaints with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination.

Three of the four former officers – Graf, Richmond and Rogers – filed their discrimination complaints while reporting to Clark, who has been police chief since September 2004. Tuck filed complaints in 2001 while reporting to former Police Chief Robert Kominsky, who retired in August 2004.

Richmond received a lump sum in his settlement, but the town has refused to disclose the amount despite several written requests by The Enterprise.

Tuck received a settlement of $72,500 and Rogers received a settlement that gave him a $5,000 lump sum – plus an annual payment of $2,174.76, which he will get for the rest of his life, in addition to his pension.

WEST BRIDGEWATER – Town officials have said they would release the amount of a 2011 settlement agreement they signed with former police officer Thomas Richmond – only when Richmond sends them his OK to do so.

Richmond has said he has no problem releasing the information, and that town officials made him sign a confidentiality clause that has led officials to keep the amount secret.

But despite each side saying they’re willing to provide the information, which is public, both are withholding it.

And one expert says neither party has the authority to keep a public record confidential.

“The town’s problem is that Massachusetts law does not allow secret settlement agreements with public employees,” said Jonathan Albano, a Boston attorney specializing in the public records law.

The town’s continued resistance to releasing the settlement comes despite a state ruling that cities and towns cannot enter into confidential settlements with present or former public officials, and that any such settlement is a public record that must be available to anyone asking to see it. The Enterprise has filed repeated requests for access to the town’s settlement with Richmond.

Town Administrator David Gagne said Monday that the town will release the settlement information once Richmond waives the confidentiality clause.

Richmond declined comment Monday. Last month, he said town officials made him sign the confidentiality agreement, and that he has no problem waiving it now.

When asked for a copy of the agreement Tuesday, Richmond’s attorney, Tim Burke of Needham, said he would provide the newspaper with a copy “once I have clear indication that we’re no longer bound by the terms of the requirement that the town imposed on us.”

Burke said the town insisted upon a confidentiality agreement when the agreement was signed in 2011.

“We had no choice in the matter. It was their decision. We are still bound by that,” Burke said.

Richmond filed a lawsuit against the town in federal court in June 2010 claiming discrimination based on disability, retaliation, civil rights violations, defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress. He settled his case with the town for an undisclosed amount in December 2011.

The town previously withheld the settlement amount from an agreement officials made with former police Lt. Raymund Rogers, 60, who retired in 2008 after several closed-door hearings conducted by selectmen. In keeping that amount secret, the town cited a confidentiality agreement it signed with Rogers. Officials released the information in 2010 after being ordered to do so by the secretary of state’s Public Records Office, acting on an appeal by The Enterprise.

Page 2 of 2 - In its decision, the state ruled such agreements can’t be kept secret because they involved public officials and public funds.

Maria Papadopoulos may be reached at mpapa@enterprisenews.com or follow on Twitter @MariaP_ENT.